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Beyond the Code/Part 2
Chapter summary :Leafstar tries to put Sol's prey-catching method behind her, but he avoids the rest of the Clan and sulks all day. She looks at Sol, who unhappily sleeps beneath the shade of a ledge. She is thankful that Waspwhisker and Cherrytail approach him, invite him to a hunting skills session with the apprentices. Sol agrees to come. :Leafstar is thankful that her kits are napping, allowing her to observe. She watches from the top of a rock, right beside where the training session is. Cherrytail gives the cats the order to pounce, and though Birdpaw and Honeypaw manage to do it, Sol clumsily falls on his stomach. Birdpaw asks if he is okay, although she had thought he already knew that stuff, and Honeypaw adds that he had caught lots of prey. Sol grumbles that he is fine, and asks to go again. Leafstar watches throughout the training session, but Sol can’t manage to jump, and Leafstar fears that he will soon sulk. :Sharpclaw comes up to Leafstar and speculates that Sol isn't a born hunter. Leafstar responds that Sol needs one-on-one training. Sharpclaw notes that she is going to a lot of trouble for one cat, but Leafstar answers that he wants to be a warrior, so they have to give him the training. She adds that they don't question apprentices, and Sharpclaw agrees to find someone to help Sol. However, he tells Leafstar that Sol doesn't seem to have any natural hunting skills. :That night, as Leafstar sleeps in her nest with her kits, a plop noise is heard outside. Leafstar opens and eye, thinking she heard a footstep, and when the noise is heard again, she wonders what it is. Leafstar walks to the entrance, wondering if Sharpclaw sent out a night patrol without telling her. However, she sees two foxes enter the gorge, and her eyes widen in terror. Leafstar jumps down from the ledge of her den and yowls that there is a fox attack, ordering her warriors to defend the camp. As she does so, several warriors are seen running, while the foxes snap their jaws. Sharpclaw gives the order to surround them. He tells everyone close to him to take the male, and everyone close to Leafstar to take the female. Leafstar yowls not to get close to their jaws but to concentrate on their back legs. Sharpclaw and some warriors stand on a ledge above one fox, and Sharpclaw says to be ready. As Leafstar yowls to attack now, warriors jump down and bite the foxes. :Leafstar knows that Sharpclaw would tell her that she needs to stay back out of the fight, where she can command, but she jumps toward a fox, slashing a paw at its muzzle. She thinks that she cannot let her warriors face the deadly threat of foxes alone, but she turns her head in horror to see her kits at the entrance to her den, saying that they will fight the foxes. Leafstar is horrified, but sees Sol walking on a ledge above her, and yowls at him to come and take her place. The fox tries to throw the cats on him off, and as Leafstar tries to hang on, she pleads Sol as she must save her kits. Sol hesitates as Leafstar's kits begin to head down the slope of her den, where the foxes are fighting. She cannot let go, as other cats will die if she does, but her kits will die if she doesn’t. :At that point, Lichenfur jumps down and tells the kits to stop. She picks up Firekit by her scruff, telling her that she is going nowhere, though Stormkit is disappointed. Leafstar is relieved and chomps down on the fox’s ear, thinking that it is time to finish this. The foxes run away, yipping, and Sharpclaw yowls at the two foxes to keep running as they dash up the gorge. Leafstar comes up to Lichenfur, the kits standing at her paws, and thanks her over and over. Lichenfur replies that it was nothing. :Later that night, Leafstar enters her den, where her kits are lying in her nest. Firekit protests that they could have helped, but Leafstar tells them that they are still too small, and if that if they try to do something like that again, they'll get punished. A voice stammers her name at the entrance of her den, and Leafstar turns to see Sol, who apologizes for getting scared. He asks if he will tell the rest of the Clan that it was his fault the foxes came, but Leafstar replies that she won't. She offers that maybe Clan life isn't for him, and adds that it's not his fault if he wasn't born with the instincts to hunt or fight. Sol protests that he has to be a warrior, because it's all he ever wanted. Leafstar is shocked, and asks if he knew about SkyClan before they met him. Sol replies that he knew about SkyClan since before he opened his eyes, and goes into a story. :Sol's early life wasn't easy, and his mother, Cinders, didn't give them names. Sol, as a kit, stands outside in the rain with his three littermates, while his mother scowls. He explains that he is unsure if Cinders wanted kits, as she didn't hunt very well, but told them stories to behave. Cinders tells her kits to be quiet so they can listen, and Sol continues that she would tell them stories of a Clan of heroic, brave, and honorable cats from long at to cheer them up. Cinders tells her kits that these cats were strong and beautiful and came down on clouds like sky warriors. She happily continues that they grew as big as lions when they were angry. She swipes out a paw and says that they fought as fiercely as tigers when they went into battle, and they were mighty hunters who ran as fast as cheetahs when they brought down their prey. Cinders leaps up and exclaims that they could fly, up into the trees to hide from their enemies, and to catch birds and squirrels. :Sol goes on that Cinders had said there is nothing to be scared of because those cats were good and kind and always look out for the weak. She would say that they are warriors, unlike today's cats. Sol remembers running from some kittypets who hiss at him, and stammers that Cinders wasn't very nice to be around, and she complained a lot. He wonders if that's why his father rarely came by and brought them food. :Cinders faces a solid colored tom on top of a pile of old car tires, and she yowls that he just brought them one shrew after moons of not seeing him. She exclaims that a shrew is useless, just like him, and asks what kind of a father treats his kits that way. Sol goes on that he never wanted to play with them and probably didn't like them. His father coldly looks down at Sol, then walks away, Cinders yowling to her kits that cats didn't always treat each other the way their father treats them behind him. She adds that cats used to be noble, strong warriors, unlike him. :Sol says that Cinders hated Twolegs, and explains that one time they were really hungry, and ate some food a Twoleg put outside his nest. Cinders yowls at her kits, who miserably stand by a bowl of kittypet food while it heavily rains outside. Sol continues that Cinders yelled at them and told them to get away from there. He goes on that he couldn't understand why, since he was hunting like a warrior cat, but she said that that wasn't hunting, and he should catch wild food rather than eat the brown slop. Cinders tells her kits that they will eat when they find somewhere out of the rain, and orders her kits to move their tails. Sol enthusiastically tells his mother that when he gets bigger, he's going to be a warrior, just like the cats from the sky, and will catch them all the prey they can eat. Cinders sarcastically mutters that that would be something. :Cinders and her kits approach a giant silver can that is knocked over as it pours outside. However, a Twoleg picks it up, leaving Cinders to yowl at its back, and Sol continues in the story that they looked for someplace to take shelter, but were unsuccessful, having no friends and no Twolegs. He recalls past instances of being chased by dogs, having to climb trees, and being yowled at by kittypets. Sol remembers helping one of his siblings who is trapped underneath a wire fence, but Cinders snarls at him to quit wasting time trying to help. Sol objects, but Cinders hisses that he's too small to be helpful, and orders him to come. :Later, as it still rains outside, Cinders and her kits look out from a rain gutter beside a Thunderpath. She grumbles that it will never stop raining, and they will probably die before it's over, though nobody would know they were gone away anyways. One of Sol's siblings suggests a story to cheer them up, but Cinder mutters that they can forget about the sky warriors, nobody is there or can help them. :Sol recounts that they finally found some shelter in a poor log pile, but which nonetheless let them stop and rest. He and his siblings race toward it, and Sol adds that they got all excited when their father showed up. Cinder speculates who has finally came again, and mutters that he, unsurprisingly, is foodless again. Sol's father informs Cinders that he has found a new mate who doesn't complain, and that they will go someplace else with more prey. Cinders hisses that he left her with a litter of kits and is now abandoning them, but her former mate simply says goodbye. :Sol watches Cinders from inside the log pile as she asks what she will do now, and moans that she has no mate to help her raise her kits. Cinders wonders why things like that always happen to her. Sol approaches his mother, telling her that he'll do what she wants him to if he can do it, and suggests finding food, but she just responds that everything is pointless, and she can't go on. Sol begs his mother to wait, as one day he will be big enough to be a sky warrior. He adds that he will be powerful and take care of them all, and pleads his mother. However, Cinders turns her head and orders him to be quiet, snapping that there are no such things as sky warriors. :Sol continues in his story that for a couple of days, Cinders sulked around the woodpile, but that one day she gathered them up and led them out into the rain, taking them to a Twoleg nest wordlessly. Cinders drops one of her kits by their scruff on the front steps of a Twoleg nest, ordering them to stay there and not move. The kit asks where she is going and when she will come back, but she answers that she will not come back, and the Housefolk will take care of them. Sol explains that Cinders took them to different Twoleg nests individually, and is she is next seen taking each kit to the front door of a Twoleg nest, while the kits protest. :Finally, Cinders approaches the nest of the elderly female Twoleg, and says that there is no choice as she leaves Sol at the Twoleg nest and tells him to be nice to the housefolk who will look after him, because she can't. Sol is seen looking out the window of the den, and explains that he never saw his mother again, but watched for her every day, wishing that he had been a sky warrior, because then she might have stayed. :When Sol is done with his story, he says that the old Twoleg took him was kind, keeping him well fed, but that when Leafstar showed up, couldn't believe that SkyClan was really and that he'd finally get to be a part of it. He goes on that SkyClan doesn't fly or turn into lions, but are brave and honorable, and always look out for each other. He adds that his wish came true, and that wherever Cinders is, she must be proud to know that he became a SkyClan warrior. Leafstar sadly apologizes to Sol about how he lost his family, and Sol asks if she now understands why being a warrior is so important to him. Leafstar puts a paw on his shoulder and tells him that he still things to learn before being a warrior, but she is glad that he found them. Sol exclaims that he is glad he found them too, and says that he knows that it this is where he belongs. Characters Major *Sol }} Minor *Cherrytail *Honeypaw (Unnamed) *Birdpaw (Unnamed) *Sharpclaw *Harrykit (Unnamed) *Stormkit (Unnamed) *Firekit (Unnamed) *Patchfoot (Unnamed) *Lichenfur }} Mentioned *Sol's siblings *Unnamed white kittypet *Unnamed black kittypet *Unnamed solid-colored kittypet *Sol's father *Unnamed solid-colored kittypet }} Mistakes :Cinders is called Cinder. Notes and references Category:Chapter subpages Category:SkyClan and the Stranger Category:Beyond the Code